# Best Container Engine Software

  *By [Adam Crivello](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/adam-crivello)*

   Container engines, often referred to as operating-system-level virtualization, are operating systems in which the kernel allows the existence of multiple isolated instances. Each instance is referred to as a container, virtualization engine, or jail. Developers use these to create secure, virtual hosting environments with isolated resources. Developers can also separate applications, programs, or segments of code for increased security. These tools reduce overhead for companies and simplify migration processes. Containers can also be used to store applications in a securely hosted environment to increase space, efficiency, and organization. Software solutions such as [container management software](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-management), [container orchestration software](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-orchestration), [container networking software](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-networking), [container monitoring software](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-monitoring), and [service discovery software](https://www.g2.com/categories/service-discovery) combine to create a microservice ecosystem.

To qualify for inclusion in the Container Engines category, a product must:

- Virtualize operating systems in a resource-isolated environment
- Add a level of abstraction to contained applications
- Allow administrators experience a virtual dedicated server
- Allow administrators to determine policies and interpolation





## Category Overview

**Total Products under this Category:** 22


## Trust & Credibility Stats

**Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:**

- 30 Analysts and Data Experts
- 4,000+ Authentic Reviews
- 22+ Products
- Unbiased Rankings

G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category.


## Best Container Engine Software At A Glance

- **Leader:** [Red Hat Enterprise Linux](https://www.g2.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/reviews)
- **Easiest to Use:** [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews)
- **Top Trending:** [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews)
- **Best Free Software:** [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews)

## Top-Rated Products (Ranked by G2 Score)
  ### 1. [Red Hat Enterprise Linux](https://www.g2.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/reviews)
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a enterprise operating system designed to provide a secure, stable, and high-performance environment for modern IT infrastructures. It supports a wide range of applications across physical, virtual, and cloud environments, making it a versatile choice for businesses of all sizes. Key Features and Functionality: - Security: RHEL offers live kernel patching, security profiles, and adheres to security standards certifications, ensuring a robust defense against vulnerabilities. - Consistent Lifecycle: The operating system follows a predictable lifecycle with three phases: full support, maintenance support, and an extended life phase, providing long-term stability and planning capabilities. - Cloud Integration: RHEL is optimized for cloud environments and collaborates with major cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, facilitating seamless workload migration and management. - Developer Access: Red Hat provides developers with free access to RHEL through the "Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Business Developers" platform, allowing up to 25 instances for development purposes. Primary Value and Solutions: RHEL addresses the need for a reliable and secure operating system that can handle diverse workloads across various environments. Its comprehensive security features mitigate risks, while the consistent lifecycle ensures long-term support and stability. The integration with leading cloud providers simplifies cloud adoption and management, and the provision of free developer access fosters innovation and accelerates application development. Overall, RHEL empowers organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications efficiently, aligning with business demands for production-readiness and operational excellence.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 921

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Red Hat](https://www.g2.com/sellers/red-hat)
- **Year Founded:** 1993
- **HQ Location:** Raleigh, NC
- **Twitter:** @RedHat (299,757 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/3545/ (19,305 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer, System Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 50% Enterprise, 29% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Stability (58 reviews)
- Security (57 reviews)
- Reliability (52 reviews)
- Customer Support (48 reviews)
- Ease of Use (43 reviews)

**Cons:**

- High Cost (33 reviews)
- Expensive (21 reviews)
- Subscription Issues (15 reviews)
- Usage Difficulty (15 reviews)
- Outdated Software (14 reviews)

  ### 2. [Docker](https://www.g2.com/products/docker-inc-docker/reviews)
  Docker Hub is the world’s largest repository of container images with an array of content sources including container community developers, open source projects and independent software vendors (ISV) building and distributing their code in containers. Users get access to free public repositories for storing and sharing images or can choose subscription plan for private repos.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 278

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Docker](https://www.g2.com/sellers/docker-d3866a4b-8497-449f-be3e-2e6466e6d9aa)
- **Year Founded:** 2013
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Twitter:** @docker (547,251 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1301808/ (947 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 41% Small-Business, 29% Mid-Market


  ### 3. [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews)
  Ubuntu is the Linux OS that’s made for everyone. Harness the freedom and creativity of open source, from laptops and workstations to servers and IoT devices Published by Canonical, Ubuntu brings you the best of open source, backed by enterprise-grade assurance. Ubuntu delivers a unified and stable experience. Ubuntu serves as an interoperable platform, from the desktop to the edge. Wherever you innovate, you can expect high-performance and the same rich tooling ecosystem. Through community and partnership, we ensure that Ubuntu is always at the cutting-edge. Open source contributors work to ensure that the latest applications, tools and libraries have a home in the Ubuntu ecosystem. Our hardware partners, such as Dell, Lenovo, HP, IBM and NVIDIA, work with us to certify Ubuntu out-of-the-box on the latest boards, devices and chipsets, through a series of over 500 OS compatibility tests per device. When the time comes to scale up, Ubuntu provides integrations to make device governance manageable. Enforce strict identity management protocols with support for Microsoft Active Directory, Entra ID and Google Cloud platform, through Ubuntu’s AuthD broker. Ubuntu’s regular release cadence empowers you to plan ahead with confidence. Across your stack, Ubuntu LTS (long-term support) releases receive 5 years of patching and maintenance as standard. Additional enterprise-grade support is delivered through Ubuntu Pro - Canonical’s comprehensive subscription for open source security. Ubuntu Pro expands security patching and maintenance for up to 12 years and includes tooling for hardening and compliance, enabling you to stay ahead of CVEs, minimize downtime and meet your regulatory requirements. This includes support for frameworks such as FIPS, DISA STIG, NIST and the Cyber Resilience Act.


  **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 2,293

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Canonical Ltd.](https://www.g2.com/sellers/canonical-ltd)
- **Year Founded:** 2004
- **HQ Location:** London
- **Twitter:** @Canonical (109,620 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/234280/ (1,893 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 47% Small-Business, 33% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Ease of Use (337 reviews)
- Linux/Ubuntu OS (299 reviews)
- Open Source (213 reviews)
- User Interface (190 reviews)
- User-Friendly (185 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Compatibility Issues (141 reviews)
- Driver Issues (104 reviews)
- Limited Software (104 reviews)
- Usage Difficulty (91 reviews)
- Performance Issues (80 reviews)

  ### 4. [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-cloud-infrastructure-compute/reviews)
  Compute options range from VMs to GPUs to bare metal servers, and includes options for dense I/O workloads, high performance computing (HPC), and AMD EPYC processors.


  **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 59

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Oracle](https://www.g2.com/sellers/oracle)
- **Year Founded:** 1977
- **HQ Location:** Austin, TX
- **Twitter:** @Oracle (827,310 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1028/ (199,301 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NYSE:ORCL

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 48% Enterprise, 30% Mid-Market


  ### 5. [IBM WebSphere](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-websphere/reviews)
  IBM WebSphere Liberty and Application Server (WAS) are part of JSphere Suite for Java, a portfolio of products including application runtimes, modernization tooling, and developer productivity IDE extensions that enable you to rapidly modernize enterprise Java applications and create new cloud-native applications, with support for on-premise and major public cloud deployments; in virtual machines, containers and Kubernetes. IBM WebSphere Liberty is a next-generation, enterprise-grade application runtime that accelerates the delivery of cloud-native applications, allowing your team to rapidly deliver differentiating innovation. Whether you're running microservices in a serverless environment or a traditional always on application, Liberty requires less infrastructure, memory, and compute resources, providing the flexibility your organization needs to deploy on any cloud in a trusted, secure and open environment. Liberty empowers your development and platform engineering teams to continuously deliver code that meets and exceeds your customers' expectations. Adopt Liberty today and experience up to a 99% reduction in time to deploy code. Traditional WebSphere runtimes, include IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core, IBM WebSphere Network Deployment (WAS-ND), Reviews for any of these components can be done here.


  **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 141

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 7.9/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [IBM](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ibm)
- **Year Founded:** 1911
- **HQ Location:** Armonk, NY
- **Twitter:** @IBM (709,023 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1009/ (324,553 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** SWX:IBM

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Banking, Information Technology and Services
  - **Company Size:** 65% Enterprise, 27% Mid-Market


  ### 6. [Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine](https://www.g2.com/products/red-hat-openshift-kubernetes-engine/reviews)
  Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine is an enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform that provides a foundational environment for deploying and managing containerized applications across hybrid cloud infrastructures. Built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS, it offers automated installation, upgrades, and management functions, ensuring a consistent and secure operational experience. This solution is designed for organizations seeking a robust, security-focused Kubernetes environment to support their container orchestration needs. Key Features and Functionality: - Enterprise-Grade Kubernetes: Delivers a stable and secure Kubernetes environment with automated installers and over-the-air updates, facilitating seamless deployment and maintenance. - Automated Installation and Upgrades: Features a fully automated installer that supports deployment across various infrastructures, including popular public cloud providers and specific hardware configurations. - Integrated Core Components: Includes essential services such as monitoring, registry, networking, routing, and virtualization, all deployed using a fully automated installer. - Operator Lifecycle Management: Manages the installation, update, and lifecycle of Kubernetes Operators and their associated services across clusters, enhancing operational efficiency. - OpenShift Virtualization: Enables the running and management of virtual machine workloads alongside container workloads within the same platform, providing flexibility in workload management. - Command-Line Interfaces: Supports both `kubectl` and `oc` command-line tools, allowing administrators to interact with Kubernetes clusters effectively. - Administrator Web Console: Offers a web-based interface for administrators to visualize, browse, and manage project contents, streamlining cluster management tasks. Primary Value and Problem Solved: Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine addresses the complexities associated with deploying and managing containerized applications in hybrid cloud environments. By providing a secure, automated, and enterprise-grade Kubernetes platform, it simplifies operations, enhances security, and ensures consistency across various deployment infrastructures. This solution empowers organizations to focus on application development and innovation without the overhead of managing the underlying container orchestration platform.


  **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 15

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Red Hat](https://www.g2.com/sellers/red-hat)
- **Year Founded:** 1993
- **HQ Location:** Raleigh, NC
- **Twitter:** @RedHat (299,757 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/3545/ (19,305 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 40% Enterprise, 40% Mid-Market


  ### 7. [Virtuozzo](https://www.g2.com/products/virtuozzo/reviews)
  Virtuozzo, a leading hyperconverged cloud platform for service providers, ISVs, and enterprises, enables production-ready OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service, multi-cloud Platform-as-a-Service, Kubernetes hosting, S3-compatible storage, cloud database management, and other cloud services. Virtuozzo liberates businesses from the complexities of IT infrastructure configuration and management, allowing them to refocus on their own growth. The cloud platform is designed for both cloud-native and traditional applications, ensuring optimized performance, rapid time-to-market, cost efficiency, and personalized support. Virtuozzo is available as public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud software across more than 680 cloud service providers, managed service providers, and hosting providers in 84 countries.  Virtuozzo offers a suite of products & services providing best in class public, private, hybrid and multi-cloud solutions: [PRODUCTS] - High margin cloud for the channel- \* Virtuozzo Hybrid Cloud - Infrastructure as a Service- \* Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure \* Virtuozzo Cloud Storage - Platform as a Service​- \* Virtuozzo Application Platform - Hosting Transformation​- \* Virtuozzo Hybrid Server [MULTI-CLOUD ENABLEMENT] \* Applications as a Service \* Database as a Service \* WordPress as a Service \* Kubernetes as a Service


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 52

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Virtuozzo](https://www.g2.com/sellers/virtuozzo)
- **Year Founded:** 2015
- **HQ Location:** Schaffhausen
- **Twitter:** @virtuozzoinc (3,444 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/10358578/ (268 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** DevOps Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer & Network Security
  - **Company Size:** 62% Small-Business, 27% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Affordable (1 reviews)
- Cost-Effective (1 reviews)
- Data Migration (1 reviews)
- Deployment Ease (1 reviews)
- Ease of Use (1 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Resource Limitations (1 reviews)

  ### 8. [Sandboxie](https://www.g2.com/products/sandboxie/reviews)
  Sandboxie uses isolation technology to separate programs from your underlying operating system preventing unwanted changes from happening to your personal data, programs and applications that rest safely on your hard drive.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 14

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Sandboxie](https://www.g2.com/sellers/sandboxie)
- **Year Founded:** 2014
- **HQ Location:** Boston, MA
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps (1 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 43% Mid-Market, 43% Small-Business


  ### 9. [runc](https://www.g2.com/products/runc/reviews)
  runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification.


  **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 11

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 7.3/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 6.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Object Computing](https://www.g2.com/sellers/object-computing)
- **Year Founded:** 1993
- **HQ Location:** Saint Louis, Missouri
- **Twitter:** @ObjectComputing (3,578 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/objectcomputing (395 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 64% Small-Business, 18% Enterprise


  ### 10. [KubeSphere Container Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/kubesphere-container-platform/reviews)
  KubeSphere is a distributed operating system for cloud-native application management, using Kubernetes as its kernel. It provides a plug-and-play architecture, allowing third-party applications to be seamlessly integrated into its ecosystem. KubeSphere is also a multi-tenant enterprise-grade open-source Kubernetes container platform with full-stack automated IT operations and streamlined DevOps workflows. It provides developer-friendly wizard web UI, helping enterprises to build out a more robust and feature-rich Kubernetes platform, which includes the most common functionalities needed for enterprise Kubernetes strategies.


  **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 12

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [KubeSphere](https://www.g2.com/sellers/kubesphere)
- **HQ Location:** Hong Kong, CN
- **Twitter:** @KubeSphere (2,033 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/kubesphere/ (7 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 33% Enterprise, 33% Mid-Market


  ### 11. [Canonical MicroK8s](https://www.g2.com/products/canonical-microk8s/reviews)
  MicroK8s is pure upstream Kubernetes, not a subset. We keep it small with sensible choices that just work. That makes a quick install, with easy upgrades and great security — and leaves your options open later.


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 17

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 7.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 7.9/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Canonical Ltd.](https://www.g2.com/sellers/canonical-ltd)
- **Year Founded:** 2004
- **HQ Location:** London
- **Twitter:** @Canonical (109,620 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/234280/ (1,893 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 59% Small-Business, 24% Mid-Market


  ### 12. [resinOS](https://www.g2.com/products/resinos/reviews)
  resinOS is an operating system tailored for containers and designed for the unique realities of the embedded world. resinOS supports almost 20 distinct device types, has a robust networking and provisioning story, emphasizes reliability over long periods of operation, and enables a productive developer workflow. We’ve been running resinOS as part of the resin.io platform for years and are now releasing it as an independent operating system, so that others can benefit and contribute to running containers on connected devices.


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 10

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [balena](https://www.g2.com/sellers/balena)
- **Year Founded:** 2013
- **HQ Location:** London, GB
- **Twitter:** @balena_io (5,997 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/5000762/ (73 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 60% Small-Business, 40% Mid-Market


  ### 13. [OCI](https://www.g2.com/products/oci/reviews)
  The Open Container Initiative (OCI) is comprised of a diverse set of members that are committed to creating an open industry standard around a container image format and runtime backed by a certification program.


  **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 20

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [OCI](https://www.g2.com/sellers/oci-5df0c07a-f9f8-41a5-94d2-fa4902114f55)
- **Year Founded:** 2018
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, US
- **Twitter:** @OCI_ORG (5,385 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/opencontainers/ (4 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Computer Software, Information Technology and Services
  - **Company Size:** 52% Enterprise, 30% Mid-Market


  ### 14. [Apache Mesos](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-mesos/reviews)
  Apache Mesos is a cluster manager that distributes resources across applications and databases.


  **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 16

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 7.8/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 7.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 7.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 6.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [The Apache Software Foundation](https://www.g2.com/sellers/the-apache-software-foundation)
- **Year Founded:** 1999
- **HQ Location:** Wakefield, MA
- **Twitter:** @TheASF (66,116 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/215982/ (2,408 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Internet
  - **Company Size:** 38% Enterprise, 38% Mid-Market


  ### 15. [Flockport](https://www.g2.com/products/flockport/reviews)
  Flockport is a lightweight container management and orchestration engine that lets you manage and deploy containers on single hosts and across servers. Flockport supports provisioning, overlay networks, distributed storage, service discovery, HA, a container build system and an app store.


  **Average Rating:** 3.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 12

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Flockport](https://www.g2.com/sellers/flockport)
- **Year Founded:** 2017
- **HQ Location:** Mumbai, India
- **Twitter:** @flockport (79 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/flockport/ (2 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 46% Small-Business, 38% Mid-Market


  ### 16. [Solaris Zones](https://www.g2.com/products/solaris-zones/reviews)
  Oracle Solaris 11.3 is an advanced enterprise operating system. It delivers security, speed, and simplicity for enterprise cloud environments and DevOps.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 9

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Oracle](https://www.g2.com/sellers/oracle)
- **Year Founded:** 1977
- **HQ Location:** Austin, TX
- **Twitter:** @Oracle (827,310 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1028/ (199,301 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NYSE:ORCL

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 50% Small-Business, 30% Mid-Market


  ### 17. [Turbo](https://www.g2.com/products/turbo/reviews)
  Turbo helps you to take your files and software with you wherever you go stream any desktop application straight from your browser.


  **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 9

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Turbo.net](https://www.g2.com/sellers/turbo-net)
- **Year Founded:** 2006
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Twitter:** @TurboLaunch (22 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/10680914 (12 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 50% Mid-Market, 30% Small-Business


  ### 18. [RStudio Kubernetes Container Solution](https://www.g2.com/products/rstudio-kubernetes-container-solution/reviews)
  The RStudio Kubernetes Container Solution is a comprehensive, containerized environment designed to deploy RStudio Server and Shiny applications on Kubernetes platforms. This solution leverages the scalability and flexibility of Kubernetes to provide data scientists and developers with a robust infrastructure for R-based data analysis and interactive web applications. Key Features and Functionality: - Containerized Deployment: Facilitates the deployment of RStudio Server and Shiny applications within Docker containers, ensuring consistency and portability across different environments. - Kubernetes Integration: Utilizes Kubernetes for orchestration, enabling efficient management of containerized applications, including automated scaling, load balancing, and self-healing capabilities. - Scalability: Supports horizontal scaling of Shiny applications to handle varying user loads, ensuring optimal performance during peak usage times. - Persistent Storage: Integrates with storage solutions like Amazon Elastic File System (EFS to provide persistent storage for RStudio and Shiny applications, ensuring data durability and availability. - Security: Incorporates security best practices, including the use of AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF and AWS Certificate Manager for secure access and data protection. Primary Value and User Solutions: The RStudio Kubernetes Container Solution addresses the challenges of deploying and managing R-based applications by providing a scalable, secure, and highly available environment. By leveraging Kubernetes and containerization, it reduces infrastructure management overhead, allowing data scientists and developers to focus on building and deploying analytical models and interactive applications. This solution ensures that RStudio and Shiny applications can efficiently handle varying workloads, maintain high availability, and adhere to security best practices, thereby accelerating the development and deployment of data-driven solutions.


  **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 10

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)](https://www.g2.com/sellers/the-apache-software-foundation-asf)
- **Year Founded:** 2014
- **HQ Location:** Ilford, GB
- **Twitter:** @YobitelComm (196 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps (13 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 40% Enterprise, 40% Mid-Market


  ### 19. [Garden](https://www.g2.com/products/garden/reviews)
  Garden is the component that Cloud Foundry uses to create and manage isolated environments called containers. Each instance of an application deployed to Cloud Foundry runs within a container. For more information about how containers work, see the Container Mechanics section of the Understanding Container Security topic.


  **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 6

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 7.8/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Cloud Foundry](https://www.g2.com/sellers/cloud-foundry)
- **Year Founded:** 2011
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Twitter:** @cloudfoundry (75,373 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/2509135/ (6 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 83% Small-Business, 17% Mid-Market


  ### 20. [FreeBSD Jails](https://www.g2.com/products/freebsd-jails/reviews)
  Jails can now have the amount of memory available to their processes' resident sets (RSS) CPU limiting is implemented by giving each jail a number of CPU shares and tracking the estimated CPU usage of the tasks that run in that jail


  **Average Rating:** 4.8/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 3

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 5.0/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 7.5/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 6.7/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Free BSD Jails](https://www.g2.com/sellers/free-bsd-jails)
- **HQ Location:** Melle, BE
- **LinkedIn® Page:** http://www.linkedin.com/company/fbsd (4 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 67% Mid-Market, 33% Small-Business


  ### 21. [WPARs](https://www.g2.com/products/wpars/reviews)
  WPARs enable you to virtualize your operating system without creating full LPARs on your IBM System p partitioned server. WPARs provide similar levels of isolation, but without the overhead of the full system image.


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 3

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [IBM](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ibm)
- **Year Founded:** 1911
- **HQ Location:** Armonk, NY
- **Twitter:** @IBM (709,023 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1009/ (324,553 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** SWX:IBM

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 67% Mid-Market, 33% Enterprise


  ### 22. [WinDocks](https://www.g2.com/products/windocks/reviews)
  Windocks breaks the enterprise data bottleneck with a range of capabilities including database virtualization, Windows SQL Server Docker containers, synthetic data based masking, database subsetting, and unique code-free and platform native feature data, and single source of truth. Windocks has been trusted by enterprises around the world since 2015, including Novartis, American Family Insurance, DoubleLine, and many more. Windocks software is an affordable solution for small enterprises, as well as departmerns and divisions in a large organization.


  **Average Rating:** 5.0/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 3

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Quality of Support:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.2/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Use:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Windocks](https://www.g2.com/sellers/windocks)
- **Year Founded:** 2015
- **HQ Location:** Bellevue, US
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/windocks (10 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 67% Enterprise, 33% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Customer Support (1 reviews)
- Features (1 reviews)
- Integrations (1 reviews)
- Performance (1 reviews)




## Parent Category

[Containerization Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/containerization)




---

## Buyer Guide

### What You Should Know About Container Engine Software

### What is Container Engine Software?

Container engine software provides the infrastructure to run, manage, and execute container instances. Containers are executable software units that run on the cloud, desktop, or traditional IT systems. The container engine supports running multiple, isolated, container instances on the same OS kernel.

The container engine is responsible for many tasks in containers. This includes container creation by taking container images. Container images are built-in units that house applications, metadata, and dependencies required for a container runtime.  Most container engines use the open container initiatives (OCI) container image formats.

The software prepares the isolated environment for containers – known as provisioning – and allocates requirements for the container execution. To ensure smooth execution in isolated environments, it monitors container runtimes and enhances security, allowing set security policies and configurations as required. ** **

Many open-source providers offer container engine software. A command line interface (CLI) can also manage container engines, whereby instructions are given to container runtimes in the command line.

### What are the Common Features of Container Engine Software?

Container engine software comes with a lot of functionalities. While every vendor might not provide all the features, here are the most common features in container engine software.

**Isolation and resource management:** The container engine creates new containers and isolates old ones from the operating systems. It then allocates necessary resources such as memory, CPU, and network so the container runs efficiently. 

**Container creation:** It creates a new container by setting up resources and pulling in a container image, a built-in unit that stores all dependencies and libraries required for the execution of containers.

**Container execution:** The container engine software produces the necessary container runtime environment to execute containers. It also monitors the container during execution and manages its lifecycle.

**Security** : Container engine solutions ensure the safety of the container by restricting access privileges and isolating containers from each other.

**Integration** : The container can integrate and verify compatibility with other container software.

### What are the Benefits of Container Engine Software?

Container engines are an essential part of the ecosystem of container tools. They are crucial to the smooth and efficient functioning of containers. Here we list the most important benefits:

**Easy deployment:** Containerization engine software facilitates well-ordered-enables deployment of containers and guarantees automation across different environments.

**Efficient resource utilization and automation:** Container engines ensure optimal resource usage, as it makes it possible for multiple containers to run in a single operating system through isolation for execution.

**Security:** The container engine isolates containers for execution into namespaces and assigns restrictions on container access to provide holistic protection.

### Who Uses Container Engine Software?

Companies involved in software development and deployment use the containerization engine system. 

**Developers:** Developers use this software to bundle cloud-native applications and execute them in the desired environment.

**DevOps teams:** DevOps teams utilize container engines in the continuous development/continuous deployment automation practices.

**System administrators:** Container engines manage the lifecycle of containers, in turn helping system administrators handle their production environments.

### What are the Alternatives to Container Engine Software?

Container engine software can be replaced by this type of software, either partially or completely:

**Virtual machines (VM)**: They provide isolations between cloud-native applications. Each VM runs its own operating system instance.

**Operating system virtualization** : This provides a way to isolate apps, but might be limited to some OSs. 

#### Software Related to Container Engine Software

Container engine software is used along with other container technology software, including:

[Container orchestration tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-orchestration) **:** Container orchestration tools assist in the deployment and management of container lifecycles. They also boost security by keeping containers separate from each other.

[Container management software](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-management) **:** Container management software provides support for virtualization, resource allocation, and management of container workloads. These platforms scale containerization processes by organizing container workloads and related resources, and troubleshooting when allocation issues arise.

[Container security tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-security) **:** Container security software is used to protect containerized applications, related resources, container networks, nodes, and the infrastructure.

### Challenges with Container Engine Software

Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges. The container engine has to work with the entire container ecosystem; if not,  security and performance issues may develop.

**Security:** If not correctly configured, security risks occur because containerized applications share the same kernel. Safety problems in one container's workload can affect the others. Regular updates and the right configuration are important for mitigating these risks.

**Monitoring:** Because they have to function properly in different environments, at the right performance levels, keeping an eye on metrics for all the running containers is arduous.

**Storage:** The container engine needs to connect with persistent storage and data centers to stow docs and information that are accessible without latency when containerized applications are running.

### Which Companies Should Buy Container Engine Software?

Companies that are in development that use container technology should invest in container engine software.

**Software development companies:** Companies that use DevOps principles should buy container engine software. It lends a hand to their continuous integration/continuous deployment practices.

**Cloud platform providers:** By including the capabilities to run containerized apps, cloud platform providers can cater to clients who use containers in their IT landscape.

### How to Buy Container Engine Software

#### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Container Engine Software

The software’s ability to integrate with development lifecycle workflows, cloud infrastructure, other container software, and APIs must be considered.

Companies should take advantage if a container engine software vendor offers a free trial to evaluate the product before investing. Depending on the scope of the deployment, it might be helpful to produce an RFI, a one-page list with a few bullet points describing what a business needs from the software. 

#### Compare Container Engine Software Products

**Create a long list**

Buyers need to identify features and use cases that they need from their container engine tools, which will start them off with a large pool of software providers. Next comes evaluating the pros and cons of each product. Plenty of open-source projects provide free setups. CRI-O is an example of a community-driven container engine.

**Create a short list**

Short lists cross-reference the results of initial vendor evaluations with other buyer reviews on third-party review sites such as [G2.com](http://www.g2.com/), which guide the buyer on their path to purchase. From a list of three to five products, buyers compare pricing and features to determine the best fit.

**Conduct demos**

Companies should try out all of the products on their shortlist. During vendor demonstrations, buyers should ask specific questions about the functionalities and use cases they care about the most. For example, they might ask the vendor to show how the container engine software tool enforces access control.

#### Selection of Container Engine Software

**Choose a selection team**

Involving the most relevant personnel is crucial during the software selection process. The team should include relevant company stakeholders who can scrutinize the software to check whether it will meet the organization’s requirements. The individuals responsible for the day-to-day use of container registry software must be a part of the selection team. 

**Negotiation**

The cost of the software varies based on the features offered, the number of instances, and the number of users. Buyers looking to trim costs should negotiate the specific functions that matter to them to get the best price. More often than not, the price and specifications on the vendor’s pricing page are flexible. It’s crucial to negotiate about the fees for implementation and support, as well. 

**Final decision**

Before deciding to purchase the software, testing it for a short period is advisable. Everyday users are the best people to perform this assessment. They can use and analyze the software product's capabilities and offer valuable feedback. In most cases, software service providers offer tutorials and a short-term product trial. If the selection team is satisfied with what the software does, the buyers can proceed with the purchase or contracting process.